Earlier this year, Serena Williams made headlines for her fiery outburst at an umpire during her US Open final loss to Naomi Osaka.

Williams was seen visibly frustrated at umpire, Carlos Ramos, after the Portuguese penalised her for 'coaching' due to a gesture made by her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou.

Mouratoglou confirmed he had been coaching, but said Serena hadn't seen him doing so. Williams, herself, then re-iterated she hadn't received any tactics from courtside and insisted she would "never cheat to win and would rather lose."

She was then fined $17,000 and docked a game for verbal abuse and had a point penalty for racquet smashing after calling Ramos a 'liar' and a 'thief'.

Several months later, after being announced as GQ's 'Woman of the Year', Williams has shed some light on the incident.

She told GQ: "I think a person can be a little bit more sensitive to anything in that moment.

"You know, it becomes a trigger moment. When you go through a really extreme ordeal not once, not twice, not three times, it becomes a trigger moment.

Williams said she now feels remorseful about the incident. However, she also claimed her gender and ethnicity were the reasons she was treated unfairly.

The 23-time Grand Slam winner also compared her case to Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who was in a teary-eyed rage when up for US Supreme Court nomination.

She continued: "You do some research on how black women are treated if they're angry, as opposed to white women, white men, black men. It is bottom of the bottom of the totem pole.

"Kavanaugh's a white man. I'm a black woman. His limit is higher. My limit is way lower. And that where we stand right now in this world.

"If you don't believe anything I say, just look at those two examples."